Silly car question #38: do you have to indicate at a mini-roundabout?

Thursday, 19 July 2018

Surely you don't have to indicate for those tiny painted circles. Or do you?

There are strict rules about how to indicate at a roundabout in New Zealand.

As you approach, you're supposed to indicate in the direction you intend to exit. So at a four-exit circle, if you're taking the first you would indicate left, if you're taking the second you would not indicate at all as you approach, or if you're intending to hop off at the third exit you'd indicate right.

You always give way to traffic already circulating in the roundabout, but once you're in, you then indicate left just before you're about to take your exit, to tell other motorists waiting to enter on your right that they're free to go.

Yes, mini-roundabouts can be unfeasibly small. But normal rules about indicating still apply.

Nice and simple… if you're talking about a proper roundabout (or 'traffic circle' as they are sometimes called overseas) that's large and a fully complete and separate structure in the road.

But what those mini-roundabouts we often see in urban areas?

If you can drive around a mini-roundabout you should. Although large vehicles are allowed to drive over.

If he can do it, you can too. Although everyone was well behaved when we were filming them.

* Why do we drive on the left?

* Should I 'share' my car?

* Is it okay to change lanes all the time?**

They're tiny, often just painted on the road and hardly big enough to actually circumnavigate in an average-sized car, which is why you see so many people simply drive over the top of them.

Those rules about indicating surely don't apply here, do they?

Actually, they do - albeit subject to a little reality check, says AA Driving School general manager Roger Venn.

'All normal rules apply in that signals must be given - a mini-roundabout is no exception,' says Venn.

'It is rare on a mini-roundabout that you would be able to get three seconds for the left signal to exit the roundabout for example, but signals must be given as with any other roundabout - at least as far as is practical/reasonable given the small nature of them.'

Venn also says there is also consideration given to the size of the vehicle: 'If the vehicle you are driving can be driven around the markings then it should be. So a Mini should not drive over the paint, but a larger SUV/ute/van would be okay to do so.'

Venn also says that we should remember the purpose of a mini-roundabout - which is to slow down all traffic approaching an intersection using these rules to assist with traffic flow, without the expense and space requirements of a full-sized structure.

Given that many motorists struggle with correct indication even on full-sized roundabouts, what hope is there for the miniature version?

We spent some time filming at a mini-roundabout and once drivers saw a camera, most became very careful about driving around the painted circle and indicating correctly - even some in quite large trucks.

So it can be done.